Agenda - 09-06-2016-13-6 - Information Item - Safe Routes to School Plan Update

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3 Jurisdiction and Implementation of Infrastructure Projects The Town is responsible for the implementation of its Community Connectivity Plan. Priority projects related to Cameron Park Elementary School and C.W. Stanford Middle School include sidewalks, crosswalks, and bike lanes. Orange County Planning staff and NCDOT have identified recommendations related to Grady Brown Elementary School and Cedar Ridge High School as potentially viable projects in the SRTS Plan. These projects would include sidewalks along the New Grady Brown School Road frontage and along Orange Grove Road to Interstate 40, where these sidewalks would serve as receiving sidewalks for a pedestrian crossing across the interstate and into the Town's jurisdiction. If the County were to take steps towards this multi-phase project implementation, it would initially need to: • Contract or perform in-house engineering design of sidewalks, including an estimated cost of construction; • Obtain an easement encroachment agreement with NCDOT; • Enter into a mutually agreeable sidewalk maintenance agreement with the Town; • Enlist the schools as partners in the project planning; and • Acquire funding for the engineering and construction of the sidewalks, which would include a 20% local match, and seek competitive federal funds through the DCHC MPO; or fund the project through County funds. The interstate pedestrian overpass may become a more viable project following construction of the receiving sidewalks. Jurisdiction and Implementation of Non-infrastructure Projects Implementation of the SRTS Action Plan can also address non-infrastructure projects in the categories education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation. The Town and County would be responsible for implementing projects within their respective jurisdictions. Examples of these non-infrastructure project recommendations could include: • Integration of bicycle/pedestrian education into the class curriculum, including hands-on skills training such as simulated street crossings and bicycle handling drills/rodeos; • Start a comprehensive motorist/pedestrian/bicyclist safety campaign to create awareness of conflicts and safety behavior; • Begin a walking school bus program including a partnership of the school system, parents and members of the community, including law enforcement; • Begin mileage clubs/contests that can give children a sense of accomplishment; • Begin a crossing guard program; • Develop SRTS bicycle/walking maps; • Starting a Walk to School Day; and • Perform an update of the surveys identifying numbers of students walking and biking to school, or desiring to, and the key factors affecting parents' decisions to allow or disallow children to walk or bike to schools.